Index system.



G. P. WIGGINTON.

INDEX SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED 0015, 1912.

1,97%566, Patented Aug. 19, 1913.

add OM04" G51. WIGGINTON.

INDEX SYSTEM.

APPLIOATION'IILED 00T.5, 1912.

Patented Aug. 19,1913.

- 2 SHEETS-8HEET 2.

sacrum no. 0 7

1255/7: sun/m5 (mm/rs ism-56a i To" all it may concern Be it known'thatI,- Gnonon l "Wmomrox,

a citizen "of the; United States, residing at the city of Ka'l mazoo,county of Kalamazoo, State. ofjM chigan, have invented oer tain new anduseful Ii'n'provements in Index Systems',f of which the following is aspeci- 'fication.

This invention relates to improvements i1 indexsystems.

My improved index system is especially designed and adapted by me foruse in corn nection Withloose-leaf devices, card systems,

nd cabinet filing indexes.

provements herein as embodied in and adapted to a loose-leaf ledger.

The main objects of my invention are, tirst,lto provide improvements inindex systems' enabling very rapid reference. Second, to provide animproved index system in which the names may be arranged inalphabeticalorder as to surnames and Christian or firm named and at thesame time, one whichyvill give a numerical index withoutduplicating themembers so that each indexed sheet or member has an unduplicatedidentifying member. Third, to provide an improved index system by whichthe page and position of each i'ndexed sheet or member inthe indexedelement. is indicated.

, Etirther objects, and objects relating to in the accompanying drawing,forming a part of this specification, in which:

Figure I is a perspective view of a loose leaf ledger embodying thefeatures of my invention, theledger v being. shown open.

.Fig. II is a detail plan view of the sheets shown .at the night. inFig. I, the top index sheet; or member 1.

sheetor member broken away to partially disclose its indexed elementbelow. Fig. .1

III is a detail rea'r view of the master index In the drawing, similarreference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the severalfviews.

In: the structure illustrated in the sccom:

' INDEX SYSTEM.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed hotelier 5, 1912.Serial-1E0. 7%,010.

-li-have illustrated and described my im- 1 bodiment cannon r.Wiser-neon, or'xnnamaaoo; mrcmenn.

Patented Aug. 19,1913.

panying drawing, a loose-leaf binder is shown. The style of binder,however, is immaterial and my improvements are equally well adapted tocard systems and dex sheets or members 1 having surname indicia tabs 2thereon characterized by alphabetical surname indicia and numerals,

the numerals being neit'erably consecutive. For convenience inlllllSlI'Zllll0I1,- the struc ture shown is provided w1th only, 19 ofthe index members, the alphabetical surnamev subdivisions beginning withAn and extending to El. It will be understood that in practice, theentire alphabet is subdivided in a suitable manner to provide a completesurname index. The number of the surname subdivisions may, of course, bedeveloped to the extent desired.

T he index sheets or members 1 are provided with name columns ruled intoname spaces 8 having consecutive numerals associated therewith. In thestructure illustrated every alternate name space is pro; vided with anmneral. The purpose of this alternate arrangement of the name spacenumerals will appear later. The-index sheets 1 of the embodimentillustrated are providedwith name spaces on both sides, the name spacenumerals running from 00 to 99. For convenience, the tabs 2 areprovidedwvith the surname indicia and characterizing numerals on bothsides, as is clearly shown in he drawing. The name spaces are dividedinto sections or subdivisions by alphabetical merals are, however, notessential as the name space numerals also indicate sections.-

particularly where the name space sections are grouped or dividedb'ytens as inthe-emillustrated. That is, the first Christian'or surnamesubdivision 62 embraces thename space numerals 00 to, 09;.

the second, A to B, embraces the name space numerals 10 to 19; thethird, 0,

embraces the name space numerals 20 to 29, so that it will be readilyunderstood that the Christian or firm name subdivision & is

; third, and so on.

s'heets 4,;the sheets shown bein the section; A' to B the first section;C, the. second: section ;'D to E-, the

' betical Christian or firm name indicia correand theChristian or firmn.

sponding to the Christian or-firm name indicia of the index member 1. Ipreferably also associate with the firm or Christian name indicia of theindexed element, section indicia corresponding to the section indicia ofthe index member. The index sheets or members 1 extend to the edges ofthe sheets of the indexed element so that the tabs 5 thereof are coveredby the index sheet of the element when it .is closed thereon, the surfname indicia tabs being spaced as shown, so as tobe visible. On theirrearsides, the indexed sheets t are provided. with the firm or Christianname indicia corresponding to and alined with theChristian or firm nameindicia of the tabs-on both sides of the indexed element. The indexedmember is indicated by combining the numeral of an index member tab witha name space numeral, and its position in the indexed elementisdesignated by the Christian-or firm name and section indicia of theindex member,

indicia tabs of the indexed e ement. For example,the name Chauncy & Co.would. be placed on the sheet or index member'characterized by thealphabetical surname indicia Ch, which is-further characterized by thenumeral 11, it being the 11th of the surname subdivisions in theembodiment of my invention illustrated. The osition of the name Chauncy& Co. on the index sheet is determined by the Christian or firm namesubdivisions thereof, 8: being the first Christian name subdivision.Assumin Chauncy & Co. to be the first name entered in that subdivision,it would be placed. in the 00 name space. By combining the surnameindicia numeral 11 with thename space numeral 00, the account isdetermined to be 1100. This account is placed on the sheet of theindexed element having the surname indiciav & thereon, and thesheetgiven the number 1100, as at 6. The sheets are also preferablyprovided with a space for entering the section number as shown at 7although this is not an essential.-

To enter the account of Chattam & Sons, supposing it to be the secondaccount to be entered under the Christian orfirm name subdivision &, itwould be entered .in the v 01 name space and the number of the ac-.

. count would be 1101, the account sheet being inserted immediatelyafter the 1100 sheet.

Chester & Bro, supposin it to be the-third,

accounten-teredii u the -& Christian or.

'e and section and positioned and woul be provide fi rm namesubdivision, would be 1102, and. the account sheet would be insertedimmedi-- 'ately after the 1101 sheet. David Chambers would be entered inthe D to E Christian or firm name subdivision, supposing it to be thefirst account-entered in thisv Christian or firm name subdivision, anditsnumber would be 1130, and the account 'would be placed on the indexsheet characterized by the Christian or firm name section D to E..Otheraccounts under the D to E "Christian name subdivision orsectionwould be p placed in the binder following the sheet D to E andnumbered according to their name space entry. In the event of twoaccounts under the same name, as, for instance,

.Chester &Bro., the second name would be written in the index namespaces after the name Chester & Bro. first entered and designated as 02aso that the account number would be 1102a. A second David Chambersaccount would be designated by the numeral 1130a, and so on. It isobvious that any numberof firms having the same name could bedistinguished by this method so that each accountwould have a differentdistinguish-- ing number. A further advantage of my improved index isthat a no confusion is likely to occur in entering new accounts anddetermining the proper account and page number, and further, the'enteredaccounts may be referred to very rapidly as the account number and pagecan, be quickly deter mined and its position in the indexed elementindicated.- Should an account, be closed and transferred from thecurrent or live accounts, its existence and identifying number isdetermined from an inspection of the proper surname subd1v1s1on indexsheet.

This is of decided advantage to the bookkeeper and accountants as theexistence of such accounts and their identifying numerals can be quicklydetermined. My improved index has also the advantage of being adapted totake care of a large number of accounts. For instance,*an index having40 surname subdivisionswill care for 4000 accounts providing forproperarrangenient .under surname and Christian or.firm name andproviding .a distinguishing :numeral for each account Similarly, a 60surnameedi vision index would care for 6000 ac Further,- in the eventiofduplicatin such accounts would-be with their distinguishing numbers byentering 'as I have indicated for the second account of Chester & Bro.for example, as 02a on the.

indexsheet shown.

scr be various modifications and adaptations wh ch lcontemplate andwhich are entirely feasible, such as'the. adaptation of my im-.

provements to card systems, cabinet filinghave not attempted toillustrate or desure made will enable those skilled in the art to adaptmy invention as conditions or betical surname indicia and consecutivenumerals, and having name spaces with con-. -secutive numeralsassoclated therewith and merals, and having name spaces with consecutivenumerals associated therewith and divided into sections by alphabeticalChristian or firm name indicia having section indicating numeralsassociated therewith; and an indexed element associated with each indexmember and'comprising members having stepped index tabs bearingalphabetical Christian or firm name indicia and section indicatingnumerals corresponding to the section indicating numerals associatedwiththe Christian or firm name indicia 'of the index member. whereby anindexed member of the element may be indicated by combining the numeralof an index member tab with a name space numeral and its position in theindexed element further designated by the Christian or firm name andsection indicia of the index member and the Christian or firm name andsection indicia tabs of the indexed element.

2. An index comprising index members having surname indicia tabsbearingalphabetical surname indicia and consecutive nudivided intosections by alphabetical Christian or firm name indicia; and an indexedelement associated with each index member and comprising members havingstepped indextabs bearing alphabetical Christian or firm name indiciacorresponding to the Christian or firm name indicia of the index member,whereby an indexed member of the element may be indicated by combiningthe numeral of an index member Lab with a name'space numeral and itsposition in the indexed element further designated by the Christian orfirm name indicia of the index member and the Christian or firm name indicia tabs of the indexed element.

3. An index comprising index members bearing alphabetical surnameindicia and a numeral and having name spaces with numerals associatedtherewith and divided into sections by alphabetical Christian or firmname indicia: and an indexed element associated with each index memberand comprising members bearing alphabetical Christian or firm nameindicia corresponding to the Christian or firm name indicia of the indexmember, whereby an indexed member of the element may be indicated bycombining the characterizing numeral of an index member with a namespace numeral thereof and its position in the indexed element furtherdesignated by the Christian or firm. name indicia of the index andindexed members.

4E.-An index comprising an index member bearing an alphabetical-surnameindicia and a numeral and having name spaces with numerals and Christianor firm name indicia associated therewith; and an indexed elementcomprising members bearing alphabetical Christian or firm name indicia,whereby an indexed member of the elementmay be indicated by combiningthe characterizing numeral of an index member with 'a name space numeralthereof and its posi-' tion in the indexed element further designated bythe Christian or firm name indicia.

5. An index comprising an index member bearing an alphabetical surnameindicia and a numeral and havlng name spaces with numerals associatedtherewith and divided into sect-ions by alphabetical Christian or firmname indicia having section indicating numerals associated therewith,whereby an indexed member may be. indicated by combining thecharacterizing numeral of an index member with a name space numeralthere of and the position of the indexed member indicated by the sectionindicia.

6. An index comprising an index member bearing in alphabetical surnameindicia and a numeral and having name spaces with numerals and Christianor firm name indicia whereby an indexed member may be indicated bycombining the characterizing numeral of an index member with a namespace numeral thereof and the position of an indexed member indicated bythe Christian or firm name indicia.

7. An index comprising an index member having a surname indicia tabbearing an alphabetical surname indicia anda numeral, and having namespaces with consecutive numerals 00 to 99 associated therewith anddivided into sections of tens by alphabetical Christian or firm nameindicia, whereby an indexed ,member may be indicated by combining thenumeral of an index member tab with a name space numeral.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal in the presenceof two witnesses.

GEORGE P. ll IGGINTON. [1 s.]

Witnesses M. PHIXA VOODRUFF, PEARL E. LILLIE.

